What an absolutely incredible display of tennis between Roger Federer and Bernard Tomic. Wow! If I was to tell someone to watch one match at the Australian Open so far it would be this one. I am just so impressed by what each of those guys were able to do. Even though I haven't liked Tomic's cocky attitude leading up to this, he certainly was able to put on a great display of tennis for his packed home crowd on Rod Laver Arena. However, he wasn't able to match the brilliance of the Maestro from Switzerland. Really the only thing Federer wasn't able to do well was to convert break points. Much of that, however, was due to Tomic's clutch play in those moments, really coming up with the goods at the important times. The shot making between both of them was downright breathtaking at times. Definitely Tomic was wanting to make a good impression and prove himself capable of being a top player. I think, though, that the hype about this match also brought out in Roger a fierce determination to show that he isn't going down yet to the young up and coming guys.
Federer ended the match with 46 winners and 20 unforced errors. Now those are the types of numbers his fans love to see! He truly hasn't lost his greatness in any way, and the way he moved around the court shows he hasn't lost his speed either, with some amazing retrieval ability to stay in points. Here is just one small example showing the full range of his skills.
I
thought Roger did a great job in his press conference delicately
dealing with the issue of respect between players, in a gentle way implying that Tomic could have handled that aspect better than he did. Here is a
link to that interview, as he says it much better than I could:
I could go on and on with my appreciation for this match and for Federer in general as he claimed his 250th grand slam win. I can say it was definitely worth staying up until 2:30 a.m. Hopefully he can keep up this incredible form through the next challenging matches to come.
You know it's a very hot day when Roger Federer is sweating that much. Still 104 degrees in the first evening match, they at least didn't have to deal with the intense sunshine that the daytime matches had to contend with. It was a fairly easy, though definitely not epic win for the world #2 against someone who has beaten him a couple times before. I'm sure he felt cautious about this one, knowing Davydenko had really stretched him in Oz a couple years ago, plus had recently been a finalist in Doha a couple weeks ago. However, Davy certainly wasn't up to form, making many, many unforced errors and really making it pretty easy for Roger. Of course, this sets up what has been getting a lot of attention in the media - Fed vs. Tomic at the AO. Tomic is taking full advantage of the situation and saying things that frankly I hope get him into some trouble. Yes he has turned his game around from the depths it had fallen to the second half of last year, and yes he beat Novak Djokovic in an exhibition match, meaning he obviously is playing some good tennis, but it seems he may be setting himself up to be made a bit of a fool of if he isn't able to live up to his own expectations, after making comments implying Federer may not even make it to the 3rd round - even though it hasn't happened in over eight years. It all remains to be seen how this match will go, but I hope that Roger teaches his young opponent that he is still the master. I am finding that I had already forgotten, in the 4-5 months since the last major, how much of the action we don't get to see,. especially in the first couple rounds. There is just so much tennis going on, and I feel like I have seen just a tiny fraction of it, in spite of watching hours and hours a day. But one thing that does seem evident is that the top players for both the men and women are in tip top form, with some of the women hardly losing any games in their first two rounds. Things will start heating up more now for some of them and we have some good matches to look forward to, like Maria Sharaova vs Venus in third round action.
And
I have to make mention of the sad situation that happened for Sam
Stosur the other night. She has always struggled to play in her home
country and once again her nerves got the best of her. It was heart
wrenching to watch. After dropping the first set and looking like the
same old - same old, she managed to get things together, won the second set and was up 5-2 in the third. Then
the demons attacked again. She got broken serving for it the first
time. Oh well, she has another insurance break, she can do it the next
time. Not so. Errors, tentative play, and aggression from her opponent
caused her to lose her serve again. Then discouragement took over and
her opponent took advantage. Soon the match was over with her losing
the last five games of the match. I have major sympathy for her. All
the advice in the world doesn't seem to help. I really hope for her
sake she can find a new way to wrestle through this incredibly
frustrating malady.
For those who are still alive in the tournament, though, on to the third round. And many of us are needing to adopt the hash tag the AO twitter page is using - sleepisfortheweak!
